Rome, seventeenth-century ceiling of basilica of Santa Francesca Romana restored

Restoration work on the wooden ceiling of the Basilica of Santa Francesca Romana in Rome has been completed, an operation brought to port by the Fondo Edifici per il Culto, the Olivetan Benedictine Community and the Colosseum Archaeological Park. The church’s 17th-century wooden coffered ceiling is one of the most interesting and fascinating among those in Rome’s historic center. Made to a design by Carlo Lambardi (Arezzo, 1545 - Rome, 1619) according to the iconography proposed by Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfrondati (Milan, 1560 - Tivoli, 1618), it has a highly decorated lacunar division in whose central band three wooden sculptural groups stand out: the one toward the altar depicts Saint Frances Romana with the angel, the central one the Virgin with Saints Agnes and Cecilia, and the one near the altar Saint Benedict. In fact, to the Benedictine order belong the monks of the Monte Oliveto Maggiore congregation who have resided in this complex since the 14th century, which has passed into the ownership of the Ministry of the Interior-Fund for Worship Buildings.

The work of securing and restoring the attic and lacunar ceiling was started in summer 2020 after reports of some pictorial fragments falling to the ground. Water infiltration in past years had soaked (impregnated) the wooden structures compromising the decorative apparatus and the sealing system. It was only after ensuring the structure’s tightness and restoring the cohesion of the frames that restorers carried out the restoration of the decorated surfaces and sculptural groups by reattaching the pictorial film and gold leaf gilding, filling in the gaps, chromatically realigning the gaps, in full compliance with the principles of modern restoration as understood: recognizability, reversibility, minimal intervention, authenticity. It is also a valuable intervention because it concerns one of the most interesting churches in Rome: the Basilica of Santa Francesca Romana as we see it today is the Baroque transformation of the Paleochristian church of Santa Maria Nova erected by Leo IV in 847 to assign it the cardinal’s title that was from the church of Santa Maria Antiqua destroyed by an earthquake. The church and adjoining monastery are grafted onto the podium of the Roman temple of Venus and Rome, the largest in antiquity erected by Hadrian in 135.

The intervention is enhanced by the publication of a volume of studies Santa Francesca Romana. The Restoration of Hope, edited by Alfonsina Russo, Cristina Collettini and Alessandro Lugari and published by Gangemi editore. The volume collects the experience lived in recent months in contact with the extraordinary historical and artistic heritage of the basilica dedicated to the saint, co-patron saint of Rome and patron saint of automobiles, celebrated on March 9. Since 1608, the church has been named Santa Francesca Romana, precisely following the canonization of Francesca de Ponziani, a Roman noblewoman who had been so helpful and comforting to the Roman people during the plague of 1413 and who today is also the Roman patron saint of epidemics. In addition, on the occasion of this very symbolic anniversary, the PArCo is offering on its Youtube channel the video story of the restoration, with the protagonists involved in the work.

“Once again it is Culture in its declinations that restores the hope of a restart and rebirth for all. The restoration of the wooden ceiling is an extraordinary example of sharing and collaboration between entities,” says Alfonsina Russo, Director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park. “And we are proud, thanks to the collaboration of the Buildings for Worship Fund and the Olivetan Benedictine Community, to have been able to conclude it in time for the day named after the Saint.”

Rome, seventeenth-century ceiling of basilica of Santa Francesca Romana restored

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